Disclaimer: Not mine. I only play with them.

A/N: Tell me what you think.

Late Night Thoughts

The room was dark when he came in. He spent the entire day and most of the night fixing up the city as best he could. He didn't know how much the place would hold, but he was willing to do everything he could to keep it running. If it meant being the last to go to sleep and the first to awaken then so be it.

He noticed the form of someone lying on the bed and he frowned. He'd been so busy he never noticed when she arrived. This was another thing he was willingly missing out on because he had things to do. He slowly sat at the edge of the bed and lit a lamp.

The smooth features seemed almost alien to him after years of being surrounded by fellow ghouls and machinery. Smoothskins were a rare sight in Underworld and, even then, only the desperate were willing to stay for more than a couple of hours. To be able to get this close to one of them was a miracle.

But she had always been different. She was willing to walk around the wasteland with a pack full of scrap metal to help them. And Winthrop knew better than most the crappy deal he had given her in exchange for the pieces of scrap. He also knew how much those pieces were needed to keep the city going. He wasn't lying when he told her everything needed repairs.

A coarse, leathery hand caressed her sleeping face and he marveled at the trust she placed on him. Most humans feared them and treated them like zombies. Sure, the treatment hurt but Winthrop had walked among the ferals roaming the museum and he understood (even if he didn't like it) why the humans thought of them like that.

But she wasn't happy with only helping by bringing scrap parts. Instead, she offered her knowledge in science and engineering to help him. Granted, she didn't know as much as he did, but the help was needed and he had accepted. He never could've imagined they would end up sharing a bed whenever she came to Underworld.

She sighed softly in her sleep and shifted and Winthrop reluctantly moved his hand away. He knew there would come the day when she would pay for a room at Carol's instead of breaking into his room. He knew there would come the day when she would avoid talking to him. And there would come the day when he would look in her eyes and see the same revoltion and disgust he saw in every other smoothskin. But above all, he feared the day she would go away and never come back. Leaving him wondering if she had died alone in the wasteland or if she had finally settled down in a city with a smoothskin to warm her bed. Because he knew he would wait for her to return, even if it meant to watch her from afar.

He moved away from the bed, forcing himself to get rid of his thoughts. For all he knew he could be the one to leave her by turning feral and forcing her to shoot him. He concentrated on taking his overalls off and making a mental note of what needed to be fixed tomorrow.

"Now there's a sight I don't mind waking up to," her sleepy voice startled him and he turned to watch her sitting on the bed.

Her new position made the sheet pool at her waist and exposed her bare chest. The sight of it made him swallow hard.

"Like what you see?" she asked with a teasing grin on her face.

Winthrop didn't care that he was exhausted. He didn't care that he needed to be up again in less than four hours. He didn't care about the future and how lucky he was to find the only smoothskin that shared the same passion to fix things as he did and didn't care what he looked like. He simply walked over to the bed and settled on top of her before kissing her. He guided her back down on the bed while bringing a shaking hand to her chest and she moaned. The sound making him shiver. He pulled back first, smiling in satisfaction when she whimpered in protest.

"How long?"

"A week. I need to go to the Washington Memorial but I can spare a week," she replied with ragged breath.

Winthrop knew better than to ask her to stay. Instead he smiled and kissed her again. This time it was her that pulled back.

"While I'm finding it hard to do the right thing now, we should stop," she said while pulling him down to rest his head on her naked chest, "We're both tired and you need to be up early."

He grumbled while his hand started tracing symbols on her stomach before inching lower, earning a chuckle from her.

"Tell you what. I swear I'll make it up to you tomorrow."

He merely grunted again, already half asleep after a day of working and this time it was her that caressed the ghoul's head. She wondered what her dad would think if he could see her now. She wondered how long until Winthrop found a ghoul woman that could stay with him forever and ever. She wondered how long until he got fed up of her leaving for God knows how long without even telling where she was going. And she feared the moment she would return to find someone else sharing this bed with him.

The wheezing sound she grew to associate with Winthrop finally falling asleep soon filled the room. She felt his arms around her midsection and she smiled. She closed her eyes ready to go back to sleep. After all, she had one week to show him how much he really means to her.